This invention relates to electronic systems and, more particularly, to electronic instruments for measuring electrical signals. Specifically, the invention is directed to displays for electronic systems.
In one known instrument, a display is provided which can display as many as four windows. An instrument can comprise a module or a combination of modules. A different instrument state can be displayed in each of the four windows simultaneously. That is, a display of the state of a module or combination of modules can be displayed in each of the four windows concurrently.
Unfortunately, once the different instrument states are displayed, it is very cumbersome to access an individual instrument, that is, a module or combination of modules, to change instrument settings. For example, one exemplary instrument, the HP 70000 series modular measurement system display, the HP 70206A display, available from Hewlett-Packard Company, Signal Analysis Division, Rohnert Park, Calif., requires numerous keystrokes to change instrument settings. Specifically, the user needs to depress the "DISPLAY" hardkey, then push the "Assign Keyboard" softkey, next select the window corresponding to the instrument whose settings are to be changed by means of a numeric keyboard or a rotary pulse generator knob, and depress the "MENU" hardkey to enable the instrument setting softkeys. This operation necessitates an in-depth understanding of the operation of the instrument. This operation also usurps the time to enter many keystrokes irrespective of the level of skill of the user. It is therefore desirable to facilitate the change of instrument settings in such an instrument.
Additionally, many color editors are known. One approach for enabling a user to select a set of colors is to display multiple colors from which the user can choose on the display screen simultaneously, and the user can select colors by codes associated with the colors. Typically, the system sets defaults if the user does not elect to choose the colors. For example, in the case sixteen colors are available, the background can be defaulted to black (0), the graticule can be defaulted to gray (1), the first trace can be defaulted to yellow (2), the second trace can be defaulted to cyan (blue) (3), the third trace can be defaulted to pink (4), and so on up to 16 colors (i.e., colors 0-15). Therefore, color choices and the ability to adjust colors for various reasons, such as the level of ambient light, color blindness of the user, etc., are limited. It is therefore desirable to provide a broader range of color choices for color displays.
Finally, dot or pixel stretching to achieve a clearer, more refined display is known. Previously, however, pixel stretching has been achieved by means of hardware, such as in the HP 70205 and HP 70206 displays, by ORing adjacent pixels. More recently, pixel stretching has been achieved by means of a PAL (program array logic) circuit. However, in both of these instances, only the pixels of traces of data are stretched. It is desirable that pixel stretching be applied to the entire display.